Gaming Publishers and Developers that actually "won" your respect.

[sethisjimmy]

Well the obvious one is Valve. They have some great games, good PR, good business practices, generally a good consumer oriented company that clearly aims to please. My only complaint is that Steam is essentially a light form of DRM, but there's so many advantages to using it I can't hold it against them.

Grasshopper Manufacture/Suda51 Have won my respect just from their unrelenting commitment to continually trying new things. Not everything they try succeeds, but just the fact that they're willing to take that risk is awesome, and when they get it right they really nail it.

Atlus, as mentioned above, I have a lot of respect for. Similarly to Grasshopper, they tend to release a ton of different niche games (at least they are in the west) rather than trying to go for the big prize, which I appreciate. Also their games tend to be unapologetically Japanese in a lot of ways as opposed to trying to westernize their franchises.

Platinum Games. These guys just know how to make action games. Not much else to be said here. In 4 years these guys have blown up in a major way, with almost every release being a critical success.

Double Fine. Same reasons as Grasshopper, they're always willing to take the risk on new ideas rather than relying on old ideas. Again, doesn't always work the best, but they've definitely got their own style and it's always interesting to see what they have coming up.

Pretty much any developer that consistently tries new ideas has my respect. It takes a lot of courage and effort as well as conviction to take those kinds of risks, but I feel those kinds of developers are the ones that are really taking the art form to great places.

 

[Orks da best]

Bungie. Just Bungie really. Most other I don't care about that much (valve) or am meh on (bioware, blizzard) or there dead....

 

[darth.pixie]

CD Projekt Red for everything. Larian for its good games and ambitious projects. I'm not that huge on Valve games but I like them for customer support and relations. Remedy for daring something new after Max Payne and actually improving their games with every release.

 

[Antari]

Valve, Bohemia Interactive, The Creative Assembly, Introversion Software, Runic Games, Paradox Interactive, IO Interactive, SEGA, and Sid Meier's. I'm probably leaving out a few but its getting late.

 

[Carnagath]

If we're talking AAA, then Rockstar always seem to be actively enforcing very high standards in their releases. I will do a lot of research before buying any game from pretty much anyone, but from Rockstar I might just do it blindly. That's the amount of trust that they've managed to build.

 

[Candidus]

Paradox - for Mount and Blade, and for being a bunch of guys who just make games that they want to play. All the better if you like them too, but they aren't going to chase the dollar of people whose desires don't match theirs. This is the way to be.

Valve - only due to Dota 2. I'm not a fan of any of their other efforts, but their work on Dota has been so exceptional that it single handedly gets me on the Valve bandwagon.

Atlus - Odin Sphere.

Team Ninja - for Dead or Alive 2-5, for Ninja Gaiden 1-2 and Sigma. This developer rarely puts a foot wrong in my book. Though the character Rachel in NG and the whole of NG 3 are notable slippages.

CD Projekt - Everything these guys do make me grateful that they exist.

Creative Assembly - Total War has been the ever-reliable backbone of my strategy gaming since Shogun 1.

No doubt I'm missing a few, but those come to mind most readily.

 

[Saregon]

Plenty of developers, a lot of indie devs, CD Projekt Red and Valve's dev department come to mind, and also Blizzard's devs (Diablo 3 DRM notwithstanding, but that is a publisher thing more than a dev thing, if I'm not mistaken).

When it comes to publishers, I think only Valve really. Blizzard is close, but not quite there.

Oh, not sure if it counts here, but the Humble Indie Bundle guys really have my respect, especially with the option to put parts of the payment towards charity.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Valve: Generally awesome.

Obsidian: Their games may be full of bugs but damn they can create worlds and characters. (I suspect its all the refugees they've picked up from Black Isle).

Relic: For creating Dawn of War and other RTS games that I've sunk countless hours into.

Runic Games: For giving us a ARPG worthy of being called 'the successor to Diablo 2' after the disaster that was Diablo 3 (Having many Blizzard North refugees working there helps).

Telltale Games: For sticking both Episodic mas well as Point & Click Adventure games back into the spotlight.

Former Members: Bioware, RIP and may EA stop abusing your name.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Developers: Bioware (despite what others seem to feel, I have yet to play a bad game by them), Netherrealm Studios (brought Mortal Kombat back to respectability), Telltale Games (man, that is how you do writing in games), Rocksteady Studios (because fuck me, Batman: Arkham City/Asylum rock) and Double Fine Studios (they make such creative games).

Publishers: Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, for one simple reason. When they purchased Netherrealm Studios after the fall of Midway Games, they told the developers to make a new Mortal Kombat game, but to take however long it took to get it done right. The result was, in my opinion, the best Mortal Kombat game since UMK3. That is how a publisher should handle a company under them.

 

[spartandude]

CD Projekt Red releases what is essentially an expansion to an amazing single player game for free! yh who else would do that?

also Paradox, well atleast in terms of their core stragety series (EU, HoI, Victoria and CK) becuase they know they have a small niche but they dont try to make it appeal to everyone and alienate their audience. however in every other respect Paradox tends to fuck up

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

well, there are the obvious ones like CD Projekt and Valve.
However there are two others which might get some people too start flipping their shit.
Blizzard : Yes, DRM is bad, but I willing to let it slide since their games are glorious. I loved diablo 3, not as much as 2, but I still loved it, and I'm into their other two franchises also. Personally, i think they're great.

Bioware: They make some of the greatest games. Those games really stay with you. Also, i'm one of the few who absolutely adore DA2, and due to the extended cut, I love ME3 as well (multiplayer for the win!)

 

[Snotnarok]

None of them. Every pub has at some point kicked out either unfinished garbage and put a 60 dollar price tag on it to cash in on ignorance, or put out expensive DLC, caught with on disc stuff, DRM or missed out on promises. Yes, even the mighty valve who was quoted as saying Left 4 Dead will get TF2 like support, then 6 months later L4D2 was coming out. Call that what you will, I was buying in for the amazing support TF2 got.

I don't know how anyone gets any allegiance to companies, I always go in expecting the worst and hoping for the best. I guess like Yahtzee does in a way, just less cynical.

 

[Boggelz]

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. They are a publisher, but they own TT Games (responsible for the Lego video games), Monolith Productions (Guardians of Middle-Earth, F.E.A.R.), Rocksteady Studios(Batman: Arkham Asylum/City), Netherrealm Studios (Mortal Kombat reboot and the upcoming Injustice: Gods Among Us), and Turbine, Inc. (Lord of the Rings Online).

What makes me respect them, though, is how they approach the companies they own. After purchasing Netherrealm Studios, they informed the people there that when it came to making Mortal Kombat games, rather than follow Midway's strategy of "One game a year, no matter what," Netherrealm Studios was to take however long it took to make a game that matched the standards of the publisher. That shows that WBIE understands that making a good game takes time, and is willing to work with the studio to make it happen.

They also published Bastion! (fanboy squeels)

OT: Mainly Indie developers are the ones who have earned that respect (Supergiant Games has replied to me when I sent them fan mail) but no real publishers have to my knowledge. Sucker Punch has never made a bad game in my mind. But theyre walking the same line as Naughty Dog and Insomniac with InFamous 3. (Naughty Dog made a pretty bad plot for Uncharted 3, though I still liked it, and Insomniac is treading thin with the new Fuse game) But I still dont doubt that they'll make InFamous 3 good.

Runner up is Irrational Games which gives me a notable example of games being art. (But I'm worried about Bioshock Infinite. 2 guns at a time? Sprinting? Walking on lava here)

 

[Evil Smurf]

Double Fine, because each and every game they put out is at the very least a unique experience. I love a studio that's constantly trying something new.

Valve, for all the reasons.

Rockstar, because even though I'm not a big GTA fan, I respect the amount of work and detail they put into every aspect of their products.

Supergiant Games. I know they've only done one game so far, but damn it, Bastion was incredible enough to earn my respect forever. I will immediately snatch up whatever game they come up with next.

This and anything Sid Meier puts his name to turns to gold, so him. Also 2K games and the people behind Saints Row.

 

[Maximum Bert]

MMM not sure respect is the right word but ones I like atm are :-

Platinum games - purely because of their games (from even before they were platinum games) they arent great storywise or character wise but their action game in particular are top notch with strong clean visuals, pin sharp controls and excellent gameplay also they made Okami as clover.

Lab Zero - an indie studio trying to break into fighting games and what they actually produced was imo a very good effort if a little lacking in character selection but their continued dedication to the game despite problems has impressed me so much so I actually supported their kickstarter (or indiegogo) page to add more characters which is a unique event for me so far.

 

[veloper]

CD project, Valve, Relic, Wadjet eye and I've decided to trust Obsidian with PE.

 

[Ishal]

Hmm lets see...

Obsidian: Just as Dopo said, buggy and full of problems but they've given me some of the best experiences in spite of all that. Plus Chris Avellone and some of the guys formerly of Black Isle.

Bungie: For Marathon and Halo

Valve: The generous Steam sales and Half Life: 2 also for the endorsement of mods and the modding community.

Irrational Games: For Thief, Bioshock, and System Shock 2

Nintendo: For Metroid Prime and all the other good games they've done.

Atlus: The amazing JRPG's that don't actually turn my stomach by being so over the top.

Those are the ones that come to mind so far.

 

[Karoshi]

Blizzard.

I played some of their titles since childhood, but didn't know a single thing about the guys behind my favourite games. Then I discover WoW and fell in love with how attentive, responsive and passionate they are about their games. Blizzteam listens to feedback, tries to get right what the players want and still have time to crack jokes in forums. They don't make the perfect games (cough, cough, Diablo 3), but they try really hard.

Yager really impressed me as well. Spec Ops: The Line caught me off-guard and now I can't wait for their next major release. Let's hope they got some other aces up their sleave.

Obsidian is my favourite developer of all times. They are these crazy geniuses that give branching plots, great characters and fuckton of bugs for me to enjoy. Their games have flaws, no doubt, but they still blow me away.

Valve are the generic good guys. No need to say more.